Languages

Nepali

Language

Citation Formats

General Reference

Language Atlas. "Nepali." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/nepali.

APA Style

Language Atlas. (n.d.). Nepali. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/nepali

BibTeX

@misc{languageatlas-nepali,
  author = {Language Atlas},
  title = {Nepali},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/nepali},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Nepali is the official and most widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. It is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.

Facts

ISO 639-3 Code

npi 1

Speaker Count

19,000,000 1

2011-2021 estimate, first-language speakers (14 million second-language speakers, 2021 census; 32 million total).

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Family

Indo-European

Source Wikipedia: Nepali Language

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Nepali Language

Wikimedia FoundationLead section

Quote, Lead section

Nepali is the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. It is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch within the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.

View the Source

1. Wikipedia: Nepali Language

Wikimedia FoundationInfobox, ISO 639-3

Quote, Infobox, ISO 639-3